


Symphony

by Shiyaki



Category: Black Dagger Brotherhood - J. R. Ward
Genre: Bonding, Butch is so done with this shit, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mating Bond, Pining, The Scribe Virgin is very unhelpful, Time Loop, emotional mess!Vishous, only temporary, overall mess!Butch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2018-12-26 16:07:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12062433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiyaki/pseuds/Shiyaki
Summary: “I can’t believe I’m asking this, but I guess weirder things have happened, true? You’re in a time loop?”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Vutch or whatever you want to call this pairing has consumed me... and I couldn't do anything but writing this. 
> 
> The title is derived from the song Symphony by Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson btw. Kinda reminded me of them, though in a... let's say more poetic way.

“Hey Cop, feeling better?”

„V, already finished your rounds?”  Butch raised his hand in greeting, but didn’t bother looking away from the TV in front of him or providing an update on his current state of health. “Hey, do ya know anyone who’s good at playing the piano? Or making ice sculptures?”

From the corner of his eye he noticed Vishous stop in mid-motion, the gloveless hand no longer seeking a self-rolled cigarette and the right foot still raised from nudging the door closed. Even without seeing it, he could vividly imagine the current ‘what the fuck’-expression on his best friend’s face. Butch’s lips curled into a wistful grin. Incredulity was a good look on the other male; _every_ expression was a good look on him except for **_that_** one. The one burned into Butch’s soul and which he never ever wanted to experience again.

“Why? Did the transition knock loose more than a sudden appreciation for chocolate? What’s up with the sudden art enthusiasm?” V ribbed after a short moment of silence and lowered his hand, the cigarette apparently forgotten for the moment. He approached the couch, where he spent a full minute watching Bill Murray tinkling the ivories on the widescreen. “You’re watching _Grounddog Day_ …”

“Yup.” Ignoring Vishous’ judgingly raised eyebrow, Butch stuffed a bite of the huge, extra-cheese pizza, with cheesy crust into his mouth. He didn’t even feel guilty about the amount of fat he was currently consuming. Besides a vampire’s ridiculously quick metabolism, which would be the envy of every and all eating contest participants worldwide, the calories wouldn’t be a problem for more than a few days.

V’s piercing gaze wandered from the side of Butch’s head to the half-emptied bottle of Lagavulin and the stack of DVDs on the coffee table, then he picked up the latter. His diamond colored eyes quickly skimmed the synopses on the back covers and with each one the furrows on V’s forehead became more pronounced. Finally he dropped the movies back onto the table and eyed Butch bemusedly.

“You must be really bored. A time loop marathon, Cop?”

Butch silently stared back at Vishous, chewing away on another mouthful and using the time to ponder the situation. Did he want V to know? It wasn’t like it was going to help his plight, but… Well, who was he kidding? Of _course_ he wanted him to know. He wanted him to know and keep knowing and he wanted a lot of other things that were out of his reach.

“It’s kinda soothing.” Butch averted his gaze from V’s half lidded eyes and hissed in annoyance when he shifted and irritated his still sensitive skin. “They’re caught in a loop, forced to experience the same day time and time again, while everyone around them forgets. It’s slowly driving them insane, because they have no idea how to escape and they’re starting to do stupid things, but…” A pair of black boots appeared in front of him seconds before two heavy hands settled on his shoulders.

“Butch?”

“… But in the end they fix whatever the fuck needs fixing and then they’re on their merry way to the future,” Butch finished and closed his eyes. His mouth had run away with him, but he honestly didn’t care, he was just so tired and _sick_ of this.

“You don’t sound all that soothed,” Vishous assessed. It seemed more like an afterthought, though the squeeze to Butch’s shoulder felt earnest. “I can’t believe I’m asking this, but I guess weirder things have happened, true? You’re in a time loop?”

Butch wasn’t too surprised that V had jumped to that conclusion based on his ramblings or that the other vampire seemed to give the idea some real consideration. He was great like that. “Always knew you were a smart guy. Or, I guess, bright spark fits you better, with the glowy thing and stuff.” The remark earned him a punch to the shoulder, but he just grinned.

Vishous fetched a still unopened bottle of Grey Goose and a tumbler from the kitchen and threw his leather jacket over the backrest of the couch, before he dropped down next to Butch. While unscrewing the cap, V side-eyed him, his gaze filled with curiosity and concern.

“So… how long have you been at this?”

“Can’t really say. A year maybe?” Butch put the rest of his pizza slice back into the box and wiped the grease off his fingers with one of the tissues he had located nearby for other, more personal substances. “It’s hard to keep track, especially because it’s not just a day but nine. The loop begins during my transition, which sucks ass by the way, and lasts until the day of my initial initiation into the Brotherhood.”

Vishous forwent the tumbler and took a pull right on the bottle. Then another one. “Tell me everything, maybe we can find out what’s causing it.”  
  
“Oh, I know what started all of this. Your-… uh… the Scribe Virgin apparently had some-“

“Wait! My _what_?” V narrowed his eyes at him, but Butch firmly shook his head and cursed his slip of the tongue.

“Nope, forget what I just said. Buddy, _please_ believe me when I say that you _don’t_ want to know. And honestly? _I_ don’t want to tell ya, especially not now. The last time I was there to witness you getting this information ya went all phoenix or dragon or some shit and turned several buildings into dust.”

Vishous was full out glaring at him now and looked about ready to shake or punch the truth out of Butch, but that hadn’t intimidated him (much) when he had still been a human and it certainly wouldn’t now.  Five minutes into their staring match, V huffed and his glare subsided to a ‘This ain’t over’- narrowing of his eyes. Butch barely managed to suppress his grin.

“So, as I was saying, before you so rudely interrupted me, the Scribe Virgin had some sort of vision after my initiation, but things weren’t right for it to come true, so she started this damn time loop and it won’t stop until I achieve whatever it is that leads to her picture perfect future. And because she’s an unhelpful bitch, she refuses to tell me what she saw. Only on the last day, by the way, before then she has no clue what’s going on.” Butch had never seen V’s eyes get this big and he had seen a lot of expressions on the other vampire’s face. Huh…

“ _Please_ tell me you have never called her that to her face, Cop,” Vishous muttered despairingly into his hands, after he’d buried his face in them. The shock had apparently dissipated the remaining irritation completely.

“I did actually. Once. Didn’t end well, but it’s still the truth. Anyway, I’m taking this loop off, as they say.” It was still ridiculous that he could say such a thing in any plausible context.

“But-“

“No. V…” Butch dragged his fingers through his hair and uttered a bone-deep sigh. “I know this is new for you, but I promise, I’ve already told ya all of this. Repeatedly. I’ve told you and the rest of the Brotherhood and Marissa and… Hell, I talked to _Rhevenge_ once or twice. I’ve tried _so_ many different things and I always wake up to the feeling of every damn bone in my body breaking and the knowledge that I have yet again failed at whatever the Scribe Virgin wants me to do. I just… Please don’t get on my case for a few days of time-out.”

For a long, almost unbearable moment, silence was Butch’s only answer. He didn’t dare look at Vishous’ face to gauge his reaction, so he startled a bit, when the other vampire got up. Instead of leaving, however, V swapped the DVD in the DVD player and sat back down. He pressed the play button on the remote control, when the main menu popped up and settled his legs on the table after snatching one of the pizza slices.

“I don’t know anything about piano playing or ice sculpturing, but I can show you some blacksmithing, true?”

Some of the tension drained out of Butch’s body, enough for a small grin to appear on his lips. “And baking bread?”

“What?”  V raised a disbelieving eyebrow. Totally unnecessary in Butch’s opinion.

“Well, you… not _you_ you obviously, but _a_ you said that ya bake awesome bread. I’m curious if that’s the truth.”

V mouthed ‘a you’ and shook his head. “Stop talking, before I get more of a headache than I already have. But what the hell? I guess, we can put baking bread on the list, too.”

~*~

Vishous was utterly frustrated with the situation and being covered in flour from head to toe didn’t even factor in. Though how Butch had managed to turn the kitchen into a winter wonderland or a cocaine drug bust gone wrong (depending on the one being asked) was still beyond him.

No, the main reason was this whole time loop business.

Sure, it was hard to wrap his mind around the concept, but V _did_ believe Butch. The expressions he had seen on his best friend’s face the previous night would have been enough to convince him, but the cop also moved like he had had a fuckton of time getting used to his new body. There were also the new skills in dematerialization, knife throwing and the Old Language. Not to mention the information Butch evidently was and shouldn’t be privy to.

V didn’t know which issue to tackle first. The apparent connection he shared with the Scribe Virgin and finding out what other stuff Butch had dug up on him? Just imagining that the cop knew about his lovely five-star stay in Bloodletter’s camp turned his stomach.

Maybe he should first focus on puzzling out how to stop this time loop shit, before Butch really went loopy. He was already on his best way to the loony bin, it seemed. Why else would they be standing in the Pit’s kitchen, channeling girl scouts? What next? Would they collaborate with Rhevenge and sell hash cookies in ZeroSums for a good cause?

Anyway, Butch had mentioned… other Vs ( _what the fuck?_ ) coming up with ideas, which had ultimately ended in failure, but that didn’t mean he would just sit around on his ass and twiddle his thumbs. He would indulge Butch’s wish for a week-long time-out, though, because he really, really looked like he needed one and V was pathetically whipped, when it came to the cop. Hopefully he wouldn’t come up with anything too outrageous, like robbing a bank… Huh, that could be pretty interesting, actually. Not the ski-mask wearing, bank clerk threatening take on things, of course, more of an Ocean 11 kinda thing.

“Sorry about dumping this on ya,” Butch muttered, looking up from the dough he was kneading dutifully. He looked fucking ridiculous with the wannabe salt and pepper hair and the smudge on his cheek. “Know you have enough on your plate at the moment, buddy.” His gaze flickered to V’s twitching eyelid, which was usually covered by his, well, _their_ Red Sox cap. Vishous hadn’t bothered wearing it in the Pit. Butch probably knew all about it, anyway, including what his nightmare was about. That was a whole new nightmare in the making to be honest…

“Don’t rack your brain about it, Cop, true?” V nodded to the dough, while his hands deftly worked on a self-rolled. “Throw a towel over that and leave it alone for an hour or so.” A smirk curled the corner of his lips. “You can use that time to play Cinderella and scrub the kitchen clean.”

And Vishous would spend it working on… something, as long as he was far away from Butch and the cop’s growing problem.

Fucking post-trans horniness.


	2. Chapter 2

Life was… not good, but as tolerable as possible in such a shitty situation.

He was spending some quality time with V, Marissa was tucked away in Safe Place since Butch had told her in no uncertain terms that he was a warrior and would be fighting Omega and his minions (he felt like an asshole because of the callous approach, but he just couldn’t deal with a more sensible and truthful one at the moment) and the Brothers weren’t suspicious of his time loop shenanigans (running into things accidentally on purpose and marveling at one’s new vampire characteristics in their hearing range went a surprisingly long way).

So yeah, relatively tolerable. That’s exactly why the other shoe had to drop at that moment in form of Vishous suddenly jerking to a halt on their way to the smithy. Butch eyeballed him, noticed the clenched fists and the blank expression and cursed. He didn’t need fancy mind reading skills to know that shit would soon hit the fan.

“She’s my mother, true? That’s why my hand…”

Yup, this was gonna be lotsa fun!

“Didn’t we agree _not_ to talk about this?” Butch tried, but knew his attempt was pointless as soon as he saw V’s eyes. Had the other male been glaring or the like, he could have outstubborned him, but instead there was a silent _plea_ in the diamond colored eyes and Butch had no defense against something like that. He scrubbed his hands over his face and contemplated a tactical retreat for all of two seconds. It was gonna be futile. Vishous would find him.

“Yeah… no, we’re not having this conversation here. Come on.” He turned on his heel and walked back to the Pit, psyching himself up for the imminent train wreck.

They arrived a few minutes later, V having followed a few feet at his back, silent as a grave and his face still painfully blank. After the door had clicked shut, Vishous crossed his arms and focused the entire force of his not inconsiderable attention on him. Butch didn’t see V’s hands beneath the black glove, but he bet the knuckles had turned white and not from any kind of glow.

“Well?”

“She is. Your mother, I mean.” God, he wanted a glass of Lag. Or better yet, the entire bottle.  “Apparently she wanted to… procreate the natural way to see what it’s like or something like that.” There, an answer. Now everyone was happy and they could concentrate on other stuff, right?

“And?”

Or not. Of course not.

“And what?”

“Don’t test my patience, Cop!” Vishous dropped his defensive posture and closed in with bared fangs until their noses were all but touching. “Cause I got fuck all right now, you feel me?”

Butch wasn’t bothered by the burning glare directed at him or the fists clutching the front of his tee. What got to him was the trembling of V’s fingers and everything implied.

He didn’t want to do this. God, he really, _really_ didn’t.

His hands wrapped around Vishous’ wrists, reassuring not restricting and especially not meant to detach the other male’s grip on him.

“She had an agreement with Bloodletter. He’d knock her up and any male offspring would spend the first three years with her, then the next three centuries with him and…” Butch was reluctant to reveal the last part, his eyes tracing the path the glow on V’s skin took – from beneath the glove, up the arm and finally spreading to the rest of his body. He felt the rising warmth beneath his palms, but knew it wouldn’t do him any harm. Butch’s gaze wandered back to V’s face and the shattering expression he found there.

“And…?” This time, Vishous’s voice was nothing more than a defeated whisper as he dropped his forehead against Butch’s shoulder. Butch released V’s wrists and wrapped his freed arms around the other male, tugging him against his chest. One hand settled on the wide expanse of Vishous’ shoulders, the other cradled his friend’s neck, the thumb stroking soothing circles over the heated skin.

“And…” How the fuck was Butch supposed to tell him that the Scribe Virgin wanted to turn her son into a breeding bull, when she’d already helped fucking up his childhood? He didn’t know the details about V’s stay in Bloodletter’s camp, but he sure as hell knew it had been a constant, traumatizing nightmare. Besides, Butch didn’t even want to _think_ about the Primale thing; about Vishous _getting it on_ with those God damned Choosen, because V was _HIS_ and they-

Fuck… _FUCK_!

“ _Fuck_!” Butch uttered a third time for good measure, this time out loud.

He’d become too agitated and as a result lost his grip on his tightly reined in bonding scent, which now permeated the air around them. There was no mistaking the dark, spicy fragrance for anything but what it was, so Butch wasn’t surprised, when Vishous became stock-still a moment later, before leaning back to stare at him poleaxed – all wide-eyed and gaping. Another expression Butch hadn’t experienced before incidentally.

“Yeah… you finding out about this wasn’t the plan.” Butch forced himself to let go of V and back out of his personal space. Every step felt like sawing into his own flesh with a rusty, blunted knife and his instincts were screaming at him. “Look,” He carded a hand through his hair, tugged hard on the brown strands and finally released them. “I’m not gonna act on it.”

For the blink of an eye it looked like V had been sucker-punched, but he quickly regained control of his expression and forced some semblance of impassiveness on it.

“I see.”

“No, ya don’t. You got the wrong idea.”

“What? You’re suddenly a mind reader, too?” Vishous snarled in response to Butch’s denial, not unlike a cornered animal.

“No, just know you. Your first thought, besides ‘How did this happen?’ that is, was probably ‘What about Marissa?’, but I’m pretty sure you already figured out that I don’t feel the same way about her anymore, even if you have no clue why. Another possible reason that popped up in that big brain of yours is ‘I’m a male and Butch would never go for that’ and then something along the lines of ‘It’s because I’m a sick fuck and don’t deserve it anyway’. For the record, it pisses me off that you think about yourself like that, but that’s a can of worms for another day. Anyway, how am I doing so far?” It was Butch’s turn to raise a challenging eyebrow.

Vishous stared blankly back at him, but it might as well be an admission.

“It ain’t any of those reasons, especially not that fucked up last one,” Butch stated emphatically, because he wanted V to understand _why_ nothing would come of it. Not _now_. “It’s because it wouldn’t be fair to either one of us. I don’t know what happens to a loop after I’m gone. If it disappears, if it goes on without me or another Butch or whatever. Where that leaves you. What I _do_ know is that I’ll start from the beginning in a couple of days and then you won’t remember jack shit about this conversation or anything else and I just… can’t.”

Silence descended upon them and Butch closed his eyes when a new wave of weariness crashed over him. As the minutes ticked by, he heard Vishous pace up and down and finally felt a nudge to his shoulder. Butch opened his eyes, his gaze bemused.

“That your only concern, Cop?” Some of the tension had left V’s body. Instead of furious or resigned, he looked thoughtful, almost calculating. “That it’d be in vain in your situation.”

“Yeah… I guess. At the moment getting outta this time loop feels impossible, so I haven’t thought much about the ‘after.’”

Vishous nodded, his gaze going distant as he took a deep breath, no doubt to get a good whiff of the bonding scent that Butch hadn’t reined in yet.

“I’ll be gone the rest of the night. Got some thinking to do about the bombshells you dropped on me today.”

“Yeah, okay… I feel ya.”

Vishous opened his mouth, but quickly closed it again with a shake of his head. Then he turned on his heels and left the Pit.


	3. Chapter 3

Vishous didn’t know how he managed it, but he dematerialized in front of the Pit and reappeared inside his penthouse. His feet carried him to the couch on auto-pilot, where he dropped down, slumped against the backrest and covered his eyes with his left arm.

He felt like someone had shoved all of his thoughts and emotions into a blender, but instead of creating a delectable, new beverage, everything had turned into a sludgy concoction.

V had always wondered who his mother was, had pictured her countless times during the darkest hours of his stay in Bloodletter’s camp. It had been a small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless. Now he knew that every scenario he had imagined was completely worthless. Knew that his mother had voluntarily dropped off her defenseless three-year old son at what could only be described as hell on earth and had never, not even three centuries later, informed him of their connection. She had probably pulled or planned more crap, something bad enough to draw out Butch’s- HA! Butch’s _bonding scent_. For **_him_**.

What the actual fuck?

That had come out of left field, even more so than his blasted parentage.

Vishous had, of course, notices Marissa’s sudden absence after Butch’s transition, but the other male had diverted all questions regarding that topic and by the next day Vishous had known about the time loop. V had thought Butch just didn’t want her to find out about the whole thing for whatever reason, but Butch had never even mentioned her and didn’t seem to miss her either.

But the leap from ‘Something happened between Butch and Marissa’ to ‘My best friend, who I’ve been pathetically pining for, suddenly has the hots for me’ had been too abstract for even him … in this situation maybe _especially_ for him. How had the cop managed to keep everything a secret for several days anyway? Vishous’d never heard of anybody with the ability to do such a thing.

He thought back to the spicy, heady scent and the fiercely protective, glowing gaze. Exactly what V had always wanted to experience, what he nowadays desired from Butch, even though he **_shouldn’t_**. The cop hadn’t been too far off during his assessment; Vishous was little more than a pile of razor sharp shards – Dangerous but broken. His escapades into BDSM Land had little to do with pleasure or, really, sex. He used them as duct tape to hold the pieces together - An ugly, makeshift solution, but the only one he had had available for ages.

But that wasn’t true anymore, was it? Butch had managed to glue a few shards back into place just by being himself. Just by being his friend. What would happen if they were _mated_? Vishous couldn’t help wondering what that’d add to their friendship, what it’d _be_ like. To kiss Butch, have sex with him, sleep in the same bed day after day… to sink their fangs into each other’s necks and feast on the blood no matter if it fed them or not. He imagined his name on Butch’s back and the cop’s on his and... and he’d be able to touch without the glove, wouldn’t he?

V raised his arm and stared at the still glowing skin that Butch hadn’t hesitated touching. He remembered the objects and people he had turned to dust with his hand and the moments he had used it to save the cop’s life.

But did any of it matter in the end? He’d already been rejected and though V understood Butch’s reasoning, a knife to the heart would’ve been less agonizing.

There was only one thing he could do to change the other male’s mind and Vishous didn’t know if he should chance it.

* * *

 

Vishous’ mind remained a jumbled mess for the next few days. Things were also strained between him and Butch, but none of them quite acknowledged the pink, tango-dancing elephant in the room. His Brothers and their shellans had noticed the tense atmosphere, but as long as asking questions was all they did, V couldn’t care less.

In the evening of day seven, an hour after the shutters had gone up for the night, Vishous stomped through the entrance hall of the manor and cursed his life and Butch and the whole, fucking situation. The cop had disappeared. He wasn’t in the Pit or in the main house or anywhere else on the property. V had been forced to _ask_ _his queen_ to track Butch’s whereabouts, because during the male’s transition, Vishous’ blood had all but disappeared from his body. The inability to track Butch down on his own ticked V off as much as the cop’s current location confused him. Vishous left the manor and dematerialized himself.

When he arrived on the balcony of his penthouse, Butch was leaning against the wall surrounding the building, his gaze directed at the street far below, even when Vishous stepped next to him and lit a self-rolled.

“What’re you doing here, Cop?”

“Want to know what started the whole bonding scent thing?”

Albeit taken by surprise, Vishous hummed affirmatively, before he had the chance to change his mind.

“Today, before the time loop or during the first loop or whatever you want to call it, I was out there, hunting with Rhage. It was my trial run. We found three of those lesser bastards and I did my inhaling trick.” Butch paused, contemplating something, if the frown was anything to go by. “Huh, I actually didn’t tell ya about the whole Dhestroyer prophecy thing, now that I think about it… but that’s not important right now.”

“And what is?” V demanded, the sharp tone telling Butch in no uncertain terms, that they would definitely revisit the topic of a fucking _prophecy_ as soon as possible. For now he wanted to know what the other male was getting at.

The cop side-eyed him, but soon returned his gaze to the street.

“After inhaling the lesser, I felt sick, contaminated like the time in the hospital and was scared shitless because of it. Rhage drove me here. I thought you’d be able to do something. When I arrived, you stood right here on the wall, drunk out of your mind, butt naked and your whole body glowing like a lightning bug. You were spouting some bullshit about being clever enough to fly and then jumped down, like from the edge of a fucking swimming pool. I’d no clue what to do, because I couldn't dematerialize back then, so I ran to the elevator to get down. Before I’d reached the door, you changed your mind and popped back onto the balcony... I punched you, we kinda had a heart-to-heart and life went on.”

Vishous swallowed thickly. He could very well emphasize with that V, especially if he had to watch Butch and Marissa acting like fucking – literally - newly-weds.

"During one loop though, a while after things with Marissa were over… for me anyway, I ran late. I arrived about an hour before sunrise and you weren't on the wall-" Butch lowered his head even further and clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white from the pressure. "-but down there, spread all over the concrete. When it started to dawn, I was still standing here, staring down like an idiot. I wasn’t even seeing the street anymore… I felt the burn somewhere in the back of my mind, but at that moment it didn’t mean anything to me. Like a blue screen, yeah? I guess at some point I went up in flames, but I can't really remember that part. I was in a downward spiral after that, reckless, just asking to get killed and that’s exactly what happened. I died, woke up, went through the damn transition, did something stupid and died again.”

V had sixteen languages to choose from, but still no fucking idea what to say. Or _do_ , for that matter. He felt the same desperation take hold of him as the time Butch had been kidnapped. Just a million times worse.

He wanted to make sure that Butch was fine now and to punch him for being a huge, fucking idiot. He wanted to kick that other Vishous’ ass for driving Butch to a series of suicides and to make _abso-fucking-lutely_ sure that such a thing would **_never, ever_** happen again!

V closed his eyes in a frenetic attempt to calm down, but instead his attention zeroed in on a dark, sensual scent. For a moment he figured it might be Butch’s bonding scent making a comeback, but he quickly noticed the subtle differences and that could only mean one thing. Vishous was… surprisingly okay with this development, maybe because he’d finally come to a decision regarding his tentative plan.

When he opened his eyes, Butch was gaping at him and V idly wondered if that’s what he’d looked like a few days ago.

“You’ll stop being that reckless, you feel me?”

Butch mouth closed with a snap, before he snorted self-deprecatingly.

“I already did… One time I was fighting against a bunch of lesser, on my own. One of them got his hands on one of the knives I was using and managed to stab me with it. I killed another two, before you turned up and made short work of the remaining assholes. No idea how you even found me to be honest. The wound was fatal and I probably wouldn’t have cared, because I knew I’d just wake up at the beginning of the next loop, but… I never want to see you like _that_ again, V, like… I don’t even know how to describe it…”

 _Like the center of my universe disappeared_ , Vishous mused, but refused to put his thoughts into words. No matter if they were mated or not, Butch’d always be his pyrocant.

“That still doesn’t explain your sudden attraction to me, Cop,” V remarked, one eyebrow cocked inquiringly. There had to be at least _some_ , otherwise the bonding scent wouldn’t have manifested, no matter how important he was to the other male.

Butch flushed in response, starting from the tips of his ears and ending somewhere beyond the collar of his tee, and mumbled something into his five o’clock shadow.

“Didn’t get that, Cop.” Vishous smirked, thrilled by the other male’s reaction. “Care to repeat it?”

Butch grumbled, but after a few muttered expletives, the cop looked straight into his eyes.

“I _said_ , I’ve been since the beginning, more or less, but I haven’t acknowledged it much because of Marissa and… other reasons.” Namely, V guessed, an inner freak out, because Butch had never been attracted to males until he’d met him. That was… unbelievably flattering actually.

Butch uttered a sigh and turned back to the world beyond the balcony. V followed suit, after he’d lit another self-rolled. The previous one had mostly burned down without his help.

“ _Two more days… really wish you’d come with me…”_

Vishous opened his mouth, ready to reply until he noticed that the cop hadn’t said a word. He’d been _thinking_ them and V’d heard _every damn syllable_.

If that wasn’t a good sign, he didn’t know what was.

* * *

 

Two days later Butch sat on his favorite couch in the Pit, his face burrowed in his hands and a crumpled piece of paper at his feet. Vishous had disappeared to God knows where, before Butch had even woken up. The only ‘explanation’ he’d left behind was a single cryptic line on Butch’s bedside table.

_We’ll make it right, I promise._

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

He’d probably never find out…

The accursed drowsiness, signaling the end, was already setting in.

A few minutes later Butch blacked out and woke to his bones breaking.


	4. Chapter 4

“Wakey wakey, Sleeping Beauty, or are you waiting for a wake-up kiss? That can be arranged,” were the first words Butch heard, when he regained consciousness after his post-transition blackout. It was, in one word, confusing. Only Marissa was supposed to be in the room and the teasing, almost mocking voice in close proximity to his head certainly didn’t belong to her. A low growl followed from the corner of the room, along with a whiff of a familiar spicy fragrance. 

“Calm down loverboy, it’s not like _I_ ’ _ll_ plant one on him. That’s why I’m here, yeah? So that nobody does until Butch had the chance to say his piece.”

Okay, _what_? _What the fuck was going on?_

Butch slowly opened his eyes and blinked up at Rhage’s ear and cheek. The other vampire was hovering over him, head turned towards the third person in the room, whose identity Butch became surer of by the minute. His heartbeat picked up pace as hope spread throughout his body, but he was still apprehensive and it would probably remain that way until he’d confirmed his suspicion.

“Get your mug outta my face, Hollywood. I know I’m irresistible, but one shared shower doesn’t mean I swing your way.” Butch pushed Rhage to the side to create enough space to sit up.

“That hurt, Cop, really. Right here.” The blond patted his chest right above his heart, his face twisted into a mock heartbroken grimace. “I thought we were meant to be… maybe some flowers and chocolates will do the trick?”

 “Yeah, no chance, but don’t worry, I’m sure one day you’ll meet your Prince Charming, buddy.” Butch teased, though his voice almost cracked half-way through, when his attention landed on the third person in the room.

“V?”

Vishous was leaning against the opposite wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest and his body tense. When their eyes connected though, one corner of his mouth curled upwards into a crooked smile.

“I promised, true?”

Butch had seen the truth and _smelled_ _it_ , but he’d needed _to hear those words_ to really believe it. To believe that this was the same V he had spent the last nine days with and who had somehow, against all odds, found a way to stay with him.

When Butch slid off the examination table, he did so with a grunt and clenched teeth. His body still hurt like a bitch and he was kinda dizzy, not to mention hungry enough to eat a whole cow, but none of that would stop him!

“You wrote a fucking note and disappeared into thin air, asshole.” Butch delivered a punch to Vishous’ arm and didn’t feel an ounce of guilt, when the other male winced. Before V had the chance to retaliate or react in any other manner, Butch grabbed the front of his black tee and pressed their lips together for the first time.

This moment had been a long time in the making, starting long before he had admitted to himself that he wanted Vishous as more than a friend or even a trahyner. Now if only that idiot would _kiss_ _back_ , preferably before Butch started to feel like an idiot, too, damn it!

As if hearing his thoughts – and maybe he did - V eagerly curled his hands around Butch’s neck and waist and tugged him against his body. The motions of his lips were a bit rough around the edges, but the obvious inexperience mattered little to Butch, especially when Vishous sucked lightly on his bottom lip, the very tips of his fangs touching it _just so_ , pushing his libido into overdrive.

Butch’s own bonding scent came out to play, mingling with V’s, as he freed his hands from between their bodies. He slid them underneath the unnecessary piece of clothing covering the other male’s torso and right along the hard muscles he found there. Butch’s bout of post-transition horniness and the unresolved sexual tension between them helped nipping any possible hesitation in the bud.

“Uh… right… no idea what’s going on, but… uhm, I guess this means my chaperon career is over. I’ll just scam and… find Mary. Definitely find Mary. Bye now. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t!”

Ignoring Rhage’s hasty departure or, rather, his existence in general, Butch dropped a kiss to the corner of V’s mouth, before he began to map out the other male’s jaw and neck with his lips and teeth. The goatee he encountered on the way would take some getting used to, but he was pretty sure it’d happen in a jiffy. His downtown buddy was definitely on board with everything so far and going by the responding hardness pressing against his erection and the hand disappearing beneath the waistband of his boxers to grab his ass, so was Vishous. That is, until he suddenly gasped and stopped moving.

When Butch leant back with a worried frown, V was staring into space, his pupil blown so wide that only the blue ring surrounding the diamond-colored iris was visible. The moment was over a few seconds later, but Vishous still looked a bit dazed.

“Sooo, I guess, your visions are back?”

Vishous hummed affirmatively and bend forward to nibble on Butch’s ear, apparently not inclined to share with the class. Butch shuddered and tilted his head slightly to the side, but wouldn’t be deterred. Not when V had been struggling with his ‘vision-disability’ for ages and not when it was the first time this had happened in _any loop_ including the first one.

“And what was it about? Anything useful?”

“Let’s just say we’re on the right track,” V’s murmured into his ear, the hot breath sending more blood towards Butch’s crotch.

“You’re not going to tell me more, huh?” The only response he got this time was the smirk he felt against his neck.

“Yeah, thought so.“

“Butch? I heard you wo- oh…”

I’m turning into a Grade A douchebag, Butch determined with enough self-disgust to instantly kill his raging hard-on. He reluctantly turned his head towards the door, where Marissa stood with a confused expression and a suspiciously wet shine to her eyes.

Realizing that V was still by his side had… somewhat pushed the fact of having, yet again, the vampire version of a fiancée to the back of his mind. That still wasn’t an excuse for his atrocious behavior and Marissa definitively didn’t deserve to be treated this way.

“V, can you give us a moment?” Butch requested, squeezing the other male’s waist, before letting go and creating some space between them. Unsurprisingly, Vishous looked far from pleased to leave Marissa and him alone and Butch was pretty sure he wasn’t imagining the bonding scent getting stronger. V’s eyes sure as hell were glowing like a set of flashlights.

“Come on, maybe you could get me some food? I’m ravenous,” he added beseechingly, appealing to the other male’s vampire instincts, which dictated he better keep his (future) mate fed or else. Vishous raised an unimpressed eyebrow, but after gently squeezing the back of Butch’s neck, he finally moved towards the door.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll make sure not to forget the chocolate, true?”

Butch grinned slightly, but the grin quickly slipped off his lips, when he turned back to Marissa.

He really hoped this was the last time he’d have to explain, but either way, he’d make it count.

* * *

 

“Rhage, you alright? Did… Went something wrong with Butch’s transition?”

The blond in question looked up from where he was leaning against the mansion door leading to the underground tunnel system. Phury and Zsadist, both still clad in their work outfits and sporting almost identical frowns, were quickly approaching.

“Nah, I think everything went well on that front. Our little boy grew up so fast… I think he’s around my height now, actually.” Scratching the side of his head, Rhage uttered a deep sigh. “It’s just… it feels like I’ve missed a few episodes of a TV drama, you know? Mary likes to watch them from time to time and this reminds me of the one where that guy suddenly turned out to be the girl’s-“

“Stop with your blathering and get to the point, before I’ll make you,” Zsadist growled, though his eyes remained golden, making it a usual case of the Brother’s grumpiness.

“Wouldn’t say no to working up a sweat, Z.” Rhage grinned in return, wagging his eyebrows suggestively. “But seriously, a while ago I was on my way to the kitchen to get a snack and Marissa came up to me, all distraught and stuff. Apparently V got territorial during the cop’s transition and made her leave, whatever that actually means. When I got there, the room was filled up to the brim with his bonding scent-“ Rhage acknowledged the twin dumbfounded expressions with an empathic nod and a crooked grin. “Yeah, I know. Crazy, right? Butch was still out of commission, so I stayed there until he woke up to decide what to do with that clusterfuck. Turned out he added to it by making out with V right on the spot and contributing his own bonding scent to the mix. I got outta there asap and wouldn’t advice checking on them any time soon if you want to avoid a major breakup and or sexy time. Considering Marissa went back, before I had the chance to warn her, I’m really not sure what’s more probable at the moment or in what constellation.”

“Blessed Virgin in the Fade…” Phury rubbed his forehead with one hand. “You lost me at V, bonding scent and Butch in the same sentence, figuratively speaking. Although… on second thought, it’s more surprising that it didn’t happen sooner.”

“You mean during the whole ‘the Cop got himself kidnapped’ thing? We’d probably be another Brother short if he hadn’t survived,” Zsadist chimed in, his tone indifferent. “Well, you two can continue your idle chit-chat for all I care, but I have better things to do.” And without further ado, Z disappeared upstairs to, Rhage assumed, check on his pregnant shellan. Incidentally a former kidnap victim, too.


	5. Chapter 5

Vishous was smoking his eighth cigarette within an hour (a new record for him), when the door to the sickbay finally opened. Marissa’s face was downcast, but he still noticed the bitter tears the blonde shed as she hurried past him.

To be completely honest, V hated her a bit. Hated her tears and her sorrow and what they did to Butch. His cop might no longer want to spend his remaining life with Marissa, but he didn’t want to hurt the female, whose name he would’ve worn proudly on his back once upon a time, either. Being forced to do so again and again was eating away at Butch. Vishous saw it in the other male’s face, when he re-entered the sickbay after taking one last drag and stubbing out his cig.

This would be the last time. He’d make it so, whatever the cost!

“C’mon Cop, let’s get you back to the Pit. I asked Fritz for all your favorites.” Vishous dropped a kiss on the other male’s temple and placed Butch’s arm around his shoulders, before he wrapped his own around the brunet’s back to act as a crutch. Butch was used to his vampire body, sure, but he still had to recover from the transition and refuel.

The brunet followed his lead willingly, but kept his mouth shut. His brows were knitted together in a grim frown and his fingers periodically grazed V’s shoulder blade as he clenched and unclenched his hand. V was watching him from the corner of his eyes, trying to come up with anything that would knock Marissa out of Butch’s thoughts.

“It was the Scribe Virgin,” Vishous finally muttered halfway to their abode. His gaze was stubbornly fixed on a random spot in front of them, even when Butch turned his head to the side to eye him bemusedly.

“What?”

“When I ‘disappeared’.” V air-quoted with his free hand. “I went to the Scribe Virgin“ Always, always the _Scribe Virgin_ or _Bitch_ or even _worse_ , but never _mother_. Especially not after what he’d learnt about the whole Primale shit, “to bargain with her. If she can drop you into a time loop, she can do it to me, too, true?”

Butch’s eyes widened and V knew what he was thinking without using his recovered telepathy. Vishous stopped and caught the other male’s gaze with his own as he put their brows together. He didn’t say anything or project his thoughts into the brunet’s mind, but V was sure his cop understood all the implications anyway.

Yes, you’re _that_ important to me.

Important enough to ask _Her_ for help.

I’d do **_anything_** for you.

“And… what did you offer her?” Butch rasped after swallowing hard several times. One of his hands was now curled around V’s neck, just resting there or, hell, maybe using it as an anchor.

Vishous reluctantly recalled the hours he’d inevitably wasted just trying to get to the Scribe Virgin, because she hadn’t wanted to see him. Of course that hadn’t deterred him. V’d stubbornly persisted until she’d finally deigned to stop ignoring him - Fortunately to receive him and not turn him into a pile of ashes at her feet.

The following ‘conversation’ had been a fucking disaster. As his cop had mentioned previously, the Scribe Virgin hadn’t yet seen whatever vision that had convinced her settling Butch with a time loop was a good idea. Even after V had tried to explain the situation to her, she’d been unreasonable and thus the topic had veered to her plans of making him Primale and… various other fucked-up things. Then, some very headache inducing time later, she’d suddenly done a 180 and decided to keep his memories in working order during the next loop as if that had been her idea in the first place.

“Doesn’t matter. Didn’t cost me anything, in the end, if you don’t count talking to her,” V murmured as he tilted his head towards the wiry flesh of Butch’s neck to decorate it with dark red bruises. His cop growled, maybe in acknowledgement, maybe in response to the suction and nibbling on his heated skin. Either way, he crowded V against the closest wall, where he proceeded to devour his mouth and grind their crotches together. Butch’s blood had returned south and Vishous’, who was fully on-board with the change in activities, was quick to follow.

They still stood in the tunnel connecting the main buildings of the estate, where just about anyone could stumble upon them, but that pretty much ceased to matter to not only Butch, but also V, when his cop opened his leather pants impatiently and pushed them off V’s hips. The movements of his hand on Vishous’ dick were a bit clumsy but eager enough and pretty much perfect. He twitched a bit self-consciously, when the hand wandered lower, the fingers fondling the scarred flesh, where his other testicle used to be, but refused to pull away.

Instead V mirrored the other male and got rid of Butch’s boxers by shoving them down until they hit the ground with a rustle. He turned his focus on the newly-freed, already leaking erection and resumed his crusade across Butch’s neck and collarbone, when their mouths finally separated with a wet sound.

Butch’s second hand disappeared underneath V’s tee, his fingers skimming over hard abs and pecs until a hard nipple caught his attention. Vishous groaned against Butch’s stubble-covered jaw and carefully squeezed his hand _just so._ His lips curled upwards when his action resulted in a heartfelt moan and bitten off curses and stretched into a full-blown, satisfied grin, when he felt his cop tense against him. Moments later V’s fingers were covered in warm, sticky come. Butch’s hips twitched for a few seconds longer, before he slumped against Vishous as his already wobbly legs gave up on him completely.

“Wow… haven’t come this quick since I was a teen,” the cop admitted after a short rest period and leant back to show Vishous a slightly embarrassed, crooked smile. “I, uh… I really want to finish this,” He softly tugged on V’s still hard cock for emphasis and teased a groan out of him. “but I don’t think I can stay on my feet for much longer. Do ya think you can hold out until we’re in the Pit? Otherwise I’ll have to sit down or something.”

“Oh? Didn’t know you’re ready to blow me. Knock yourself out,” Vishous retorted with a smirk, his eyes avidly watching the cop’s face turning a not so fetching red.

“I didn’t… I mean, I’m not uh…”

“Yeah yeah, we’ll work up to it. C’mon, let’s go back.” V tugged his pants higher, before trying to do the same to Butch’s boxer shorts. In the end he wrote them off as a lost cause, because in order to reach them, he’d have to bend down and then they’d topple over. If someone found them and blew a gasket, they could kiss his ass.

They shuffled along the tunnel and reached the door to their abode a good five minutes later. Vishous was kind of regretting not getting off before setting out, after all. Those had been an awfully long, _torturous_ five minutes.

He opened the door, shut it with his foot after they’d passed it and pulled Butch toward the couch. The coffee table in front of it was laden with food, which went ignored for the moment.

They ended up on the couch with Butch reclining and Vishous crouching over him. Their mouths met in another messy kiss as Butch’s spit-covered fingers resumed their position around V’s rock-hard cock.  Vishous met the stroking motions with shallow, albeit impatient trusts of his hips. It didn’t take him long to reach his climax, his moan half muffled by Butch’s mouth on his and his fingers clenched around the backrest of the couch and Butch’s waist.

As Vishous rested his forehead against Butch’s shoulder to recover his breath, the other male fumbled for the stack of napkins Fritz had brought with the food to clean them up. Afterwards he sank back into the couch cushion with a content sigh.

When V finally regained his wits, he sat back on his haunches and selected a bar of chocolate from the spread on the coffee table. He unwrapped the foil and broke off a generous piece, which he then pressed against his cop’s lips with a raised eyebrow.

The brunet cracked a grin, but didn’t hesitate to bend forwards and carefully close his teeth around the hand-given treat, holding eye-contact all the while.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting closer to the finish line, wohooo. Only 2 chapters to go.

Wrath’s forkful of scrambled eggs stopped halfway to his mouth just as the dining room lapsed into silence. He slowly turned his head towards the entrance and even half blind he could make out the differences in Butch. He’d been tall and muscular for a human before, but now he was at least on par with Wrath himself in both height and muscle mass. Even more than the physical changes, however, he noticed the dark, spicy scent. It was the same as the one drifting over from Vishous.

Rhage had warned him briefly just before First Meal had started, though being subjected to… _this_ still came as a surprise and with a healthy dose of confusion.

What the fuck was going on? Just the night before Butch had been all hung up on Marissa and had even presented her to Scribe Virgin as the female he wanted to bond to. Considering the shocked gasps and poignant questions (courtesy of Bella and Beth in particular), he wasn’t the only bewildered one.

Vishous and the cop sauntered over to their usual seats at the table (which had always been next to each other, incidentally) and deliberately ignored the inquisition.

“Wrath, we’ve something important to discuss with you. You got time after First Meal?”

Wrath squinted at V, who was calmly shoveling food onto his plate, from behind his sunglasses.

“I do and it better involves an explanation for... _this_ ,” the brunet stated, waving at V and Butch in their entirety, his voice broking to argument. Normally he couldn’t care less about the love life of other people, but considering that Marissa, his former shellan, was involved, he wouldn’t ignore the situation.

Wrath heard a snort, but let it slide when it was followed up by a muttered ‘sure’. The rest of mealtime was tense as the questions continued to flow, but were diverted or outright ignored. The brunet silently thanked the Blessed Virgin, when everyone had finally eaten their fill, bringing this train wreck to a close.

A few minutes later Butch, Vishous and he had congregated in his study. Wrath sat down on his desk chair, though instead of following his example, the two males in front of him remained standing and… were they fidgeting?

Yeah, that didn’t alarm him at all.

“Talk!”

One and a half hour later Wrath wished he’d never gotten out of bed. The whole story was insane and headache-inducing. The cop breaking up with Marissa and starting a relationship with Vishous was the least of his problems now. Not only was Butch a prophesized weapon in their fight against Omega and the Lessening Society, they were, apparently, also in a time loop, which Butch had lived through countless times, while Vishous was on his second run through.

Even he, a creature thought of by humans as non-existent, had some trouble believing such sci-fi stuff. Nonetheless, Wrath was pretty sure they weren’t bull-shitting him, at least not concerning the prophecy. They had shown him prove for that one.

Uttering a deep sigh, Wrath pushed his sunglasses up his head to rub wearily over his eyes.

“Alright, we’ll keep the whole thing a secret from the others for now and proceed like you suggested,” the brunet finally decided. V had assured him that they were on the right track to get rid of the repeating days. It was vision-proofed and everything.

At least V had recovered from his slump, even if the situation may cost Wrath his sanity.

* * *

 

They’d drawn lots. And who’d lost?

Of course **he** had!

Grumbling, Phury stomped through the tunnel leading to the Pit and took a deep breath when he reached his goal. It wasn’t like he wasn’t happy for his friends. Still very confused about how Butch and Marissa had turned into Butch and Vishous from one second to the next, but happy nonetheless. Just… Phury knew exactly what lay behind those doors and he really, really didn’t want to witness it with his own two eyes (or ears or… well, nose). Unfortunately, all phone calls and attempts at communication through the intercom had been ignored, making a visit unavoidable.

“Butch!” As he rapped on the door, Phury pondered whether it counted if he just relayed the assignment by shouting and quickly returned to the manor. Probably not…

Uttering a curse as nobody answered him even after a few minutes of waiting, Phury opened the door and was at once assaulted by a certain spicy, dark scent. Butch’s transition had been a week ago and by now Phury had more or less gotten used to the watered down version he was subjected to during First Meal (the only time of night he saw either Butch or V at the moment). Here, though, the scent was a lot more potent and almost made him choke.

Upon reaching the sitting room, his apprehensions were proven true. Butch was reclining on the couch with Vishous on top of him. Both of them, Phury noticed with a pained grimace, were in their birthday suites and one of their hands was respectively moving between their bodies. The fingers of V’s other, surprisingly ungloved, hand were idly carding through the cop’s dark hair as Butch sucked on Vishous neck. Considering the red smear on his cheek he was ‘feeding’ rather than trying to create the monster of all hickeys. There was also unmistakable, heartfelt _moaning_ involved…

This was already a lot more than he wanted to ever know about their sex life!

“Get lost Phury,” V growled without stopping his motions or even looking at him, which Phury was completely on board with, because Butch’s glare was bad enough.

“I just-“

“I’ll come to the meeting later, now _fuck off_ ,” Butch interrupted, his lips and teeth still glistening with the redness of V’s blood.

Phury hightailed it out of the Pit without further comment.

* * *

 

Rhage eyed his friend from the corner of his eyes as he navigated the car smoothly through the streets. This was supposed to be Butch’s first lesser hunt, but instead of nervous or anticipatory, the cop seemed almost bored with the whole thing. Not quite like someone underestimating the situation, rather like he’d done it a thousand times and would be capable of handling everything in his sleep. Butch even looked like a long-time Brother, clad in leather and armed to the teeth with Glocks, a hunting knife and a whole bunch of small daggers. The only things missing were the black Brotherhood daggers and Rhage was pretty sure those would follow soon enough and considering who was making them, Butch’s would be better than anyone else’s.

So much surprising stuff had happened since the cop’s transition and Wrath had at least some parts of the jigsaw puzzle available. Nobody else did, apparently not even Beth, their _queen_.

It had to be a big fucking thing that was going on. 

“Ready for the hunt?” Rhage inquired as he parked their vehicle in the dark street behind the _Screamer’s_.

“Sure,” was the cop’s nonchalant reply as he opened the door, slipped out and stretched, before moving towards Tenth Street. Rhage quickly locked the car and followed him.

“Well, I hope you’re up for some fun,” Butch exclaimed with a sharp grin, which was wide enough to flash his fangs. “Because we’re about to kick some lesser ass.” He was about to dash off, but then paused mid-step. When the brunet turned back around to face Rhage, his expression was earnest. “Whatever you do, _don’t_ stab them. Incapacitate them, break their fucking legs or whatever, but _don’t_ stab them.” His lips twitched briefly, before he added a ‘You feel me?’ and then he was off.

Perplexed, Rhage stood there for a moment, but managed to shake his confusion off quickly enough to follow the other male. Six blocks later, Rhage noticed the smell – stink really - of talcum, just as three lessers appeared in the blond’s line of sight. It looked like they were in the middle of a briefing, but all of them turned their heads simultaneously in their direction as they approached. Their confused gazes we primarily fixed on Butch.

The following minutes went by in a flash. A very confusing, astonishing flash, because Butch fought like he’d never done anything else. He easily evaded the oncoming attacks and dealt out some impressive blows. At one point the cop even nailed one of the pasty bastards to the wall with a handful of the daggers he’d brought, each imbedded deeply in the bricks and part of the lesser, be it cloth or flesh.

Rhage was pretty sure he was gaping.

The confrontation didn’t last more than a few minutes and by the end of it all three of the bastards had been reduced to pathetic heaps of broken bones and slash wounds. They were still alive but wouldn’t be able to move for the foreseeable future.

“So Cop, they’re all nicely laid out for your viewing pleasure. Why were you so adamant that we don’t stab them? That’s kinda what we’re all about, y’know?”

Butch grinned at him, all mysterious and shit, before crouching down next to one of the lessers. He pulled its upper body closer, opened his mouth and-

What. The. _Fuck_.

Black smoke was streaming up from the motionless body and Butch was steadily sucking it up until the lesser finally turned into dust, like they usually did when they were stabbed.

“Fuck.” Rhage uttered again, this time out loud, as Butch’s gaze flickered to something in the shadows. The cop, however, dismissed whatever he’d seen and proceeded to deal with the other two lessers in the same way as he’d done with the first one. Afterwards, his gleaming eyes turned towards Rhage.

“Bring me back to V, yeah?”

“But-“

“He knows what to do.”

The blond eyed the other male, now with a green tinge to his face and stinking of talcum, skeptically but stepped closer to help Butch up. The brunet leant heavily on him as they returned to the car and closed his eyes with a groan, when he sank back into the seat.

Rhage yet again side-eyed the new vampire on the drive back, pondering what he’d witnessed - The practiced movements and the experienced way in which Butch had gotten rid of those Omega minions. Also... the thing with V.

What the hell was going on?

Time travel? Had Butch been switched with another Butch from a different dimension or something?

It sounded ludicrous even to his own ears, but what else would explain all of those oddities? He really hoped that everything would be explained eventually...

When they arrived back home, V was already waiting for them, looking more concerned than Rhage had ever seen him. He headed directly to the passenger seat, opened the door and studied his significant other with lips compressed into a thin line. Butch slumped towards him and nuzzled the other male’s shoulder with the side of his head.

“Let’s get you into the Pit, Cop, then I’ll take care of it,” Vishous promised with a sigh as he first helped Butch out of the car, then wrapped the other male’s arm around his shoulder. He nodded at Rhage in farewell, before they shuffled off.

For a moment, Rhage gazed after them.

Whatever the (very, very frustrating) secret was, the blond was glad that his friends seemed to be happy with each other at least.


End file.
